Xenia help

mmcheeto

mmcheeto

Member
Hello.
I introduced some of my first corals about 1.5 weeks agoe in to my tank. All was well except for the Xenia. It has yet to puls or to look really helthy for that matter. 2 Days agoe I noticed some heads missing. I suspect a critter or the following
Yellow tank
2 Maroon clown
Hawk Fish (spotted)
4 Chromis
Cleaner Shrimp
3 Pepperment shrimp
Scarlett Hermit
Turbo snails
Nas Snails
3 Fighting Conch
This is my livestock list. One of these suspects is a criminal. Also I have this Xenia postioned 5 inch from the top of the tank with Med water flow. I have 440Watt Vho With 2 Act and 2 50/50 also a 192Watt PC with 50/50
Water peramiters are as follows
45 days in tank
Temp 80
SG 1.025
calcium 350
alk 6.8
PH 8.2
NO3,NO2, Ammonia all 0
Temp 78
I have been fighting a Ph swing of 8.3 to 8.0 daily. I have been also using calcium additive to keep at a good lvl but it allways stays kinda low. I have a new Calcium Reactor in rout for deliver this week.
I dontknow. What do you all think about the situation? :nervous:
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
The only animal in your list that I have seen eat Xenia is the Yellow Tang. I don't think that's it because it would all be gone if the Tang was interested.
Your tank is young and I think it might not be stable enough for Xenia yet. Just a guess.
Other items of interest are your Ca & ALK levels. They are pretty unbalanced. I'd recommend letting your ALK level drop naturally by not adding anymore. Once it's down below 4.0 slowly raise Calcium. You will never ever be able to raise you Calcium as long as your ALK is that high so don't dose anymore Calcium until the ALK drops.
Target something like Ca of 420ppm and ALK of 3.5 Meq/L.
I have a very strong suspicion that you now have a low Magnesium level. It's worth testing. I believe you lost some Magnesium because you are clearly precipitating Calcium and Carbonate.
Don't worry about your PH. fluctuating between 8.0 and 8.3 is fine.
Is your ALK so high because you were adding buffers? If so this is the root of the problem. IMO adding chemicals to alter PH is always a very bad idea.
Bang
 
johnny5

johnny5

Member
What other types of coral do you have Cheeto?
Bang, would more frequent water changes help normalize the levels? I have yet to have to battle with calcium/alk yet, probably because I dont have anything that is eats up calcium yet. But from a newbie point of view just doing regular water changes should prevent problems such as this, right?
 
liquidskys

liquidskys

Member

Originally posted by alison
:happyfish bang's right on. -ali
bangs always right on... the guy is a amazing powerhouse of coral knowledge!!!
 
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